In the hospital room in the main building of the Demonic Academy, near midnight…
“Nngh…”
The 23rd cadet woke up after fainting from the electric shock. His body shivered from the aftermath, and all he remembered was that he had been stunned by an unknown force while trying to cut Chun Yeowun’s leg.
‘W-why did I pass out?’
He looked around, but he was still in the medical room.
‘What is going on?’
He glanced around and felt that it was weird. The cadet normally could feel the hair that touched his shoulder, but when he moved around, he couldn’t feel any.
“…No. It can’t be.”
He couldn’t feel any of his hair. The cadet then got up and tried to find a mirror, but before he could get up, a powerful force pushed him back down on the bed.
“Ugh!”
There was no damage to his muscles, but his wounds were sewed with a needle, so the pain still lingered. He then looked down at his body. There was a rope that tied him down to the bed. He couldn’t get out of it no matter how hard he tried.
“W-who tied me down here?!”
“Me.”
The curtain was pulled and someone appeared. It was Chun Yeowun. The 23rd cadet became shocked and gasped”H-how did you?!”
“How? You passed out, so I put you back in bed.”
“Passed out?!”
So what he thought was correct. He then became concerned about the whole situation. Chun Yeowun, who should be in bed due to his internal injuries, was walking around just fine. Not to mention, he had tied him down to the bed. And of course, there was his hair too.
“W-where’s my hair?!”
“Oh, yeah. You’re bald now.”
Yeowun grinned and the 23rd cadet writhed, trying to scream.
“No- NO!! I can’t be- NO! Me? Bald?! NO!”
“Shut up.”
The 23rd cadet tried to scream but Chun Yeowun struck him down with his fist, making him pass out again.
“He’s too noisy. I should put have him bite on a rag or something,” Yeowun mumbled. It didn’t take long for the 23rd cadet to be awake again. He tried to yell again this time, but he realized he had a rag in his mouth that stopped him from making sounds.
Yeowun then sat down on the chair next to the bed. The 23rd cadet came back to his senses. He now knew what the situation was like for him.
“!!!!!”
“You have a rag in your mouth. I wouldn’t try to say anything I were you.”
Yeowun’s cold voice made the 23rd cadet’s eyes shake. He thought Yeowun was a foolish prince who did not know anything, but it turns out it wasn’t.
‘Was he like this on that day too?’
Yeowun glared at him with a cold expression. The 23rd cadet then realized that his life was in danger.
“Hey, do you know how I survived until today?’ Yeowun asked. “Can you even guess how many assassins like you come to kill or poison me?”
Yeowun’s voice had a deep hatred in it. His life was like a storm.
“What is this?”
Yeowun flashed something on his hand to the 23rd cadet. It was the knife that the 23rd cadet had stolen to cut Yeowun’s leg muscle. Yeowun then pressed the knife against the 23rd cadet’s neck and threatened him, “You tried to play with me, so you must know how painful it is to get stabbed with this? Oh, it might kill you too.”
The 23rd cadet became fear-stricken. Yeowun looked terrifying.
“Well, you better talk then.”
The 23rd cadet swallowed his empty throat.
“Who sent you?”
The 23rd cadet thought hundreds of ways to get out of this situation and came up with an idea. As he tried to talk, Yeowun took out the rag out from his mouth.
“Talk.”
“Hah… hah..”
The cadet panted heavily before he began to talk.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Besides, do you think you’ll walk out fine if you kill me in a medical room inside the academy?”
The 23rd cadet remembered of the rules of the academy. It was forbidden for students to hurt each other outside training or official duels.
‘You think you can hurt me?’
The 23rd cadet became instantly relieved and arrogant. Yeowun then frowned.
“Hmm. So, it didn’t work then.”
“Don’t even think about it. And even if you torture me, I won’t open my mouth.”
Yeowun then gave the 23rd cadet a weird look.
“Well then. Should I try it whether you open your mouth or not?”
“Huh?”
Yeowun then placed the rag back into his mouth and went to the cabinet to take out some long needles. The 23rd cadet’s eyes grew wide with shock.
‘W-what is he trying to do with that?!’
“You know, my place didn’t have these kinds of things. But this place is full of it.”
The 23rd cadet felt sweat running down his forehead. Yeowun then grabbed his left wrist. Cadet clenched his fist quickly, but Yeowun grabbed it and opened it forcefully.
‘Ho-how is he so strong?!’
Everyone knew that Yeowun did not learn any martial arts, but he was too strong right now.
‘Please!!’
As his fingers were stretched, Yeowun cracked an evil smile.
“This will hurt.”
He poked the giant needle between the cadet’s finger and nail.
“NNNNNNNNNNNGHHHH!”
The pain made the 23rd cadet cry. It was so painful that veins popped up on his neck. Yeowun did not care about the sight and took another finger to poke the nail down.
“NGNGNGGHGHHHRHHHH!”
It was only two needles, but it was too much pain for the boy to endure. He writhed in pain and Yeowun spoke to him for the last time.
“Well, you told me you won’t spill through torture, so just consider it as my way of getting revenge.”
The 23rd cadet then shuddered and tried to speak, but there was no use. It was the start of terrible torture. Soon, all of the fingers on his left hand had needles stuck underneath the nails. He had passed out two times due to the pain already.
Yeowun then got up and dragged the chair to the right side of the bed. The 23rd cadet knew what this meant so he shed his tears in fear. He tried to speak as hard as he could, trying to spit out the rag in the process.
“NGH! NGH!”
Yeowun smiled, “You want to speak then? You should’ve told me earlier.”
He grinned and took the rag out of the cadet’s mouth. He had bitten on it so hard that white rag had bloodstains on it. He then panted for a second and tried to say something, but Yeowun spoke first.
“Chun Mukeum, right?”
“H-how did you…?”
Yeowun had guessed correctly. He didn’t seem to know who was behind the plot, but it was enough to make 23rd cadet surprised.
“You’re in my group right? The 8th group.”
“…Y-yes sir.”
The 23rd cadet answered politely, still fear-stricken from being tortured. However, he was curious as to how Chun Yeowun knew that he was in the 8th group and knew that even the 23rd cadet himself was in that same group.
“Well, your tag is here.”
Yeowun pointed at the 23rd cadet’s number tag.
“But how did you know..”
“Well, thanks to our group leader, our instructor comes to me every morning to teach me what I’m missing.”
This was what Chun Mukeum had not even thought about. Since the morning session was done in the auditorium, each instructor had nothing to do so Impeng used this opportunity to visit Chun Yeowun to teach him basic martial arts techniques. It was his effort to not allow his group to fail, and Chun Yeowun was able to find out who was in his group and what his group number was.
“Well, I already guessed it, but I just wanted to hear it from your mouth.”
The 23rd cadet couldn’t believe that this boy was the foolish prince that Mukeum and Jahyun had told him about.
‘He is definitely not just some foolish kid!’
He was a monster in hiding actually. It was terrifying to guess how fearful he would be if he acquired such power.
“I still got good information from you, so let’s finish it here.”
“R-really?!”
The 23rd cadet became hopeful at the words.
“Yeah. And don’t let other people know what happened here, okay?”
He almost wanted to get up and bow in obedience, but his body was bound so he couldn’t do that. Yeowun grinned and placed his finger on the blood point of the 23rd cadet’s body.
“Huh?!”
The 23rd cadet then began falling asleep. Sending power over to the blood point required some amount of internal energy, but he knew Chun Yeowun had none.
‘He was lying to everyone!’
And the 23rd cadet’s first day in the medical room ended just like that.
